Monthly Archives: October 2012

While it won’t completely replace a standalone scale in your kitchen, this clever measuring cup that features a digital scale built right in should make a few things easier when it comes to following recipes. It can be used to measure both weight and volume depending on what a recipe calls for, and it includes preprogrammed volume conversions for ingredients like milk, water, oil, sugar and flour. The scale can weigh ingredients up to 6.6lbs and the measuring cup has a healthy 4 cup or 3 liter capacity. $29.99 from Amazon.

Yes, they’re slightly more appropriate for Hallowe’en, but these glowing dismembered body parts lawn ornaments could be used for any holiday throughout the year. Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, Bah Mitzvah… Just dress them appropriately and I’m sure the neighbors won’t complain one bit when you’ve hidden a decorated Easter egg behind that foot sticking out of your front lawn. $16.98 from IWOOT for a set of 4.

I can’t imagine anything funnier than the look on someone’s face when their home is burning to the ground and they realize that the fire extinguisher they just grabbed is actually a novelty phone! Priceless! You get that on tape and you’ve just won yourself $10,000, no question. Not too mention the fact that this phone appears to set a new benchmark for unergonomics. Are you supposed to stick the nozzle to your ear or something? $22 from Gadget4all.com.

Belkin’s new Conserve Surge powerbar features a built-in timer that will automatically cut power to six of the 8 outlets after 11 hours. The idea is that an employee will turn the powerbar on in the morning when they get to work, starting the 11 hour countdown, and by the time the clock runs out, they should in theory have already gone home. It’s designed to reduce the amount of electronics that are still wasting energy when they’ve gone into a standby mode, and to ensure that power isn’t accidentally cut off when it’s still needed, a flashing light will warn when the timer is about to run out, allowing you to override the auto-off. $34.99 available now.

We’ve been fans of iGo’s power accessories for a while; with a system of interchangeable tips to charge as many gadgets as you own (almost) from any source iGo supports, you have to carry around far less self-tangling cableage keep all of your stuff juiced up and happy. iGo’s latest offering is a Netbook Charger, designed specifically for, uh, netbooks. It’s just like the power brick that came with your netbook, with few key exceptions: it can power any netbook you have a tip for, it includes a powered USB port, and it’s pretty. Read all about it, after the jump.… Continue Reading

Wireless charging is not a new concept, as we’ve already seen it in at least one mainstream product, the Palm Pre. With the optional accessory, you could set your Pre down on the dock and it would charge. No wires, no connectors, just power. Well it seems that Dell took quite a liking to the technology, as they have decided to implement it into one of their upcoming laptops.

The Dell Latitude Z is set to be the first notebook with a wireless charging solution. If you purchase the special $299 dock, your laptop will be able to charge simply by setting it on the dock. It’s probably safe to assume that other Dell notebooks will be able to take advantage of this dock sometime in the future. Of course it’s also probably safe to assume that they will carry a hefty price tag, just as the Latitude Z does.

If you want the wireless charging ability, the Latitude Z is going to start off at $2,159 (includes the dock). This is also going to get you a 16-inch screen, Core 2 Duo SU9400, 2GB of DDR3 and a 64GB SSD. The laptop is available for purchase now, though the dock will not ship for a a few weeks.

Back at the end of July Barns & Noble announced that you would be able to receive free Wi-Fi at all of their 777 locations. With a small coffee shop and thousands of books at your disposal, who wouldn’t be happy to hear that you can get free internet as well? It also made the choice of which bookstore to frequent a much easier one. Not content with being one-upped, Borders is now offering the same.

The bookstore giant announced that they have inked a deal with Verizon to supply free wireless internet to customers at all of their 500+ locations. Thankfully the offer is extended to all customers, not just ones that are subscribed to various Verizon services. Rather, when they connect, customers will see a splash screen with book recommendations and a sign-up form for the Borders reward program. Implementation is already underway, and should be completed around mid-October.

If you ask me, most wireless keyboards designed to be used with HTPCs are just too big. I have no intentions of touch-typing out a novel while sitting on my couch in front of the TV, so this HTPC remote with its compact Blackberry-esque QWERTY keypad is more than adequate for my needs. It’s wireless thanks to a USB dongle that attaches to the HTPC itself, and besides supporting Windows, Linux and Mac OS, it can apparently also be used with the 360, PS3 and the Wii. Oh and that large area that looks like an LCD display? It’s actually a touchpad saving you from having to juggle a wireless mouse as well. Not bad for just $40 from efo, if it works as advertised of course.

It doesn’t look like it gives off that much light, and those sharp, pixelated edges might not be safe for kids, but Marcus Tremonto’s pixel bulb made from electroluminescent paper is certainly unique. You can’t buy one I’m afraid, but if you happen to find yourself passing by The Apartment at Ledbury Road gallery in London between now and October 5th, you can pop in and see it for yourself.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.